Government spared no effort in portraying these three countries and their people as "brotherly nations", convincing people that unlike other Soviet Republics who are friendly but distinct, these three are, if not one and the same people, then at least as related as biological brothers.
It was easy to people to believe that. Unlike Baltic people, Ukrainians and Belorussian use the same Cyrillic alphabet as Russians do. They are also part of the same Orthodox Church as Russians are. Their languages are close enough to Russian, that some might call them a dialect instead.
In addition to the above there were enough cultural and other similarities between these three people, as the opposite to the rest of USSR.
Language Issue
Soviet government, while nominally acknowledged that Belarussian and Ukrainian are district languages, informally called these languages a country/outback/outdated dialect and encouraged people in Belarus and Ukraine to switch to "proper, modern" language instead (Russian language).
Nationalistic people in Belarus and especially in Ukraine called it Russification. However, USSR used to crack down on nationalist critics as anti-Soviet.
Partly because of that there is such mess with languages and identity in modern Ukraine and Belarus. As some people in Ukraine and Belarus switched to Russian during USSR times for convenience and career opportunities. Others in contrast stayed true to their native language. That created divided cities and regions where some speak one and others the other language. Descendants of those who switched to do not feel like switching back and those who stayed true now wish to undo the Russification.
USSR's ideology claimed that their state as international union of "free and equal socialist" nations, so they considered any form of nationalism as separatism aimed at destabilizing the "free and equal union" Nominally USSSR opposed Russian nationalism as well, claiming than any sentiment that puts any nation individual interests above the union is wrong. However, more often than not it was other republics who felt the squeeze.
One such example would be language. Since USSR declared Russian language a "language of international communication", promoting usage of this language was seen as facilitating unity and international cooperation. In contrast promoting other languages, such as Ukrainian was seen as anti-unity and sedition.
The map in this article shows distribution of each language in all three countries. You can see a lot of Russian language on fringes of Ukraine, especially border areas. In contrast Belarus is 50% Russified.
Outcomes
The fact that some Ukrainians and Belarussians switched to Russian language and identity, created a diffusing of boundaries between these people.
To many of Russians in Russia these two nations were more of an extension, or alteration of Russian one, rather than entirely different people, such as Latvians.
Dubiously drawn borders, that split same economic regions between these three nations, rather than separate distinct economic areas from one another only added to this perception.
USSR wanted people to think that three are inseparable from each other, did a lot of fiddling to make it seem so and mostly achieved its goal.
How Propaganda prevails over the reality
Because of all of the above, it is much easier for an average person in Moscow to believe Russian Propaganda narrative.
Instead, a Nazi coup, supported by Western powers, sounds like a more plausible explanation. After all, why else would basically Russian people want to be independent of their own country and ally with its enemies instead? No way they will do something like that on their own volution...
Reality, that Ukraine never really liked Russia, felt betrayed by Tzars during the Khmelnitsky uprising and always wanted to be independent and European. However, reality goes against everything that propaganda and stereotypes used to claim and people in Russia still believe. That makes reality implausible and unbelievable. So, people turn to believable fiction, cooked by Ostankino liars.
Ukraine
As the final part, I will cover stereotypes that exist about each nation. Ukraine has more stereotypes than Belarus. Ukrainians also appear in Russian jokes a lot more often than Belarussians.
Russians' propaganda and jokes Ukrainians and selfish, greedy, parochial, superstitious and stupid. Clearly propaganda does not flatter Ukrainians. According to the stereotypes, Ukraine is somewhat of a Homer Simpson of the family.
That, of course, only increased dislike of Russia and Russians among the Ukrainians. However, Russians do not take them seriously enough.
There are plenty of Russian jokes about Ukrainians. Possibly only Georgians and Jews have more jokes about them than Ukrainians.
Surprisingly enough there are also jokes about Ukrainians hating Moskovians and trying to ruin them. Use of Ukrainian slur for a Russian person, 'Moskal', in these kinds of jokes might confuse an average Russian on who are they referring to. It could as well be just the inhabitants of City of Moscow, whom the rest of the Russia also hates for being snobbish and thinking that life does not exists outside of Moscow Ring Road.
Ukrainian Nazi, whom Dmitri Kiselev likes to blame for current War, have real origin in Ukrainian Insurgent Army, that fought the guerrilla war against the USSR in 40s and 50s. While actual UIA soldiers were not Nazi and fought Germans as well, the Soviet propaganda called them Banderites and portrayed then as Quisling-like Nazi collaborators.
Even when the Soviet Army defeated the insurgents, the propaganda kept of parroting about 'Banderites, hiding in the forests of Western Ukraine.' Dmitry Kiselev later used these 'unfinished' Banderites as basis for his Nazi in Ukraine narrative: Banderites seized power in independent Ukraine and now plotting various war crimes against Russians and pro-Russian Ukrainians alike.
Belarus
Belarussians are often portrayed as simple, but friendly people, who like their potatoes. Most of few jokes about Belarus revolve around potato and Kolkhoz.
Simpleton dictator, Alexaner Lukashenka fits Russian stereotypes about Belarussians really well. That is part of what makes him popular in Russia itself.
For a western reference, the closest thing will probably be Goofy or Donald Duck. Unlike Ukrainian, Belarussian language sounds very funny for an average Russian person. Some websites even used it as part of their 1 of April jokes.
In general, however, Belarussians seem less offended by Russian stereotypes, compared to Ukrainians.
Russophones in Belarus might think that all the jokes only about those who speak Belarussian and do not apply to Russophone themselves. Only some Belarussian speaking, who are minority in their own country, people will be offended.
Reasons for that is that Belarus is much more Russified, compared to Ukraine. Ukrainians mostly see their language as part of their national heritage and identity and therefore zealously oppose any afford to it or their identity. In contrast Russophone Belarussians adopted soviet outlook on language issues, thus they consider those who speak Belarussians country bumpkins and enjoy laughing at them themselves.
Sure, recent events with Tikhanovskaya and protests might eventually change the way, Belarussians see themselves and the world, but that remains to be seen.
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